Featured Volunteer Placements

September 2009

Bastipur, Sirriha

Located in the Terai, the jungle region along the border with India, the village of Bastipur has seen many changes in the past few months. This is a very small and poor village of hard-working but embattled folks, an area that always receives too much of everything — too much dryness to burn the crops, then too much rain that floods the village, and too much heat in the summer. The people here align their daily lives with their religion, are good natured, curious, laugh easily, and most appreciative of the efforts of Volunteer Nepal.

We began by helping the small medical clinic run by Dr. Gumpta, a kind and overworked man barely making ends meet while providing the best care he can with limited supplies, equipment, and medicines. That is where Matthew Christie of Tennessee came into the picture. Matt has three years as an EMT under his belt and wrote to Volunteer Nepal seeking a remote and poor community where he might help out while awaiting notice of acceptance into medical school. He signed up for four months, arranged to bring medicines and supplies donated in Nashville, his home and has been in Bastipur since. The villagers believe he is a doctor despite his best effort at explaining he is not, but he works under the very compassionate eye of Dr. Gumpta. Each morning hundreds of villagers will be awaiting the “white Dr. Matt.” Matthew is a great young man and a superlative volunteer.

He is having an experience of a lifetime living in the village among all these people who have come to cherish him and give thanks to him daily as part of their homage in their religious activities. Vinod, the NOH Boys Home resident manager, brought Matt to Bastipur and also brought our attention to the sad state of the small private school there. Upon the arrival of three more volunteers eager to do construction, Volunteer Nepal decided to support the rebuilding of the school. This last monsoon season had pretty much completely removed the mud walls from it, leaving the bamboo infrastructure skeletal. Yet, with no alternative, the children continued to go without any protection in all elements.

Doug Wreden from California, Sam Maize from Ontario, and Robb Dumas, another American, went down to demolish and rebuild the school, with Volunteer Nepal contributing the money to buy materials. The school now has brick walls going up, built on a new cement foundation. Matthew helped in the demolition phase. We are very proud of the exemplary work done by these four volunteers who have made an enormous contribution to the improvement of so many lives in this off-the-beaten-track village, in a land ranked one of the poorest on earth, but where the people are eager to know you and feel honored to share what little they have. We will post updates and finished pictures as soon as we complete the task.

One of the teachers and her students before demolition.

We thank all of these volunteers for their service and compassion, and the village of Bastipur has thanked them with rich and thought-provoking memories and life-changing experiences while living among a people where time has stood still.

Please contact us to see how we can help you to really live.

August 2009

At Volunteer Nepal we have the contacts and knowledge of Nepal to arrange tailor-made placements for our volunteers’ particular interests. In the case of Hamish McKenzie and Stephanie Wang, two journalists from Hong Kong, we arranged the following venue for them to collect oral histories. From life-changing service in remote Himalayan villages to those deep in the jungles of the Terai, please let us know what we can create for you.

Reprinted with the permission of  Time Out Hong Kong, August 19th 2009.

Slice of life by Hamish McKenzie

Trading places
Our roaming columnist discovers that charity can begin far from home with a stint volunteering in a remote Nepalese village

Come to think of it, it’s hard to know how the people of Bigu survive. Perched 3,000 metres up the side of a mountain in remote northern Nepal – one day’s walk and two frightening days’ bus ride from Kathmandu – the village is home to nearly 2,000 souls, none of whom have ready access to electricity, showers, or the MTR. As you might guess, it’s a pungent place with a reliance on candles and a complete ignorance of what it really means to “please stand back from the door”.

The disjuncture between our lives in Hong Kong and the lives of the villagers of Bigu is so pronounced as to be absurd. For a start, these people breathe air that isn’t actually killing them (providing they’re outside of their homes, which are filled with smoke when it comes time to cook dinner on the open fires). But on the flip side, they have to go to extreme lengths to provide for themselves entertainment that doesn’t revolve around a 100-megabytes-per-second broadband connection, portable PlayStation, or a Wan Chai bar.

So it was somewhat jarring to arrive at the village and find a group of eight girls gathered at the village’s community centre – a simple lodge built by an Austrian NGO 15 years ago – singing. Strangely, this was done without the aid of scrolling lyrics or video montages of lovers by lakes. In fact, the teenagers were belting out traditional folk songs from the village. One especially poignant number lamented the exodus of young men from Bigu to foreign countries – Dubai, Qatar, Malaysia, Korea, and, um, Hong Kong – to find work in the construction or hospitality industries.

Soon, a crowd had gathered at the lodge and, aided by sufficient quantities of the potent home-made rice wine, rakshi, everyone was up and dancing, including us visitors from Hong Kong who hadn’t been seen sober dancing since before puberty (we abstained from the local tipple). As well-trained tourists, my girlfriend and I whipped out our digital cameras and set to work crafting portrait after portrait as the villagers clamoured to get a piece of our newfangled devices.

The crowd, dressed in faded T-shirts, pilled track suits, and rubber sandals, danced the night away – well, until 7pm at least, when it was time to drive their cows, buffalo and oxen back home, picking off leeches along the way, and settle down for dinner: always potato curry and lentils with rice piled as high as the Himalayas, which stand just around the corner.

In the morning, a few families returned to the lodge to use the village’s only phone – a satellite phone – to call their sons in distant countries. This happens every day.

Ostensibly, we were here on a volunteering trip – to teach English, to interview the leaders, the teachers, and the people at the next-door nunnery – but in all honesty the people of Bigu left us with more than we left them.

Okay, so now a few young nuns know how to correctly pronounce “yellow”, and the village boys are hopefully still enjoying cricket games with firewood bats and balls made up of rolled-up trash with potatoes stuffed inside (naturally, I kicked their puny asses in those games). The girls clearly enjoyed the coloured pencils we brought them, and our hosts were amused when one night, in an effort to diversify our dinner fare, we made mashed potatoes instead of curry.

But at the end of our week in Bigu, we headed out wishing we could do more and resolving to come back soon. The draw to return is strong, despite the thirsty leeches and the bed bugs. At the very least, we learned that life is possible without the internet and air-conditioning. All you need is a little rakshi.

Want to volunteer in Bigu, or other needy Nepalese villages? Visit www.volunteernepal.com to find out how.

May 2009

The Dolpa district offers some of the most spectacular mountain settings in all of Nepal. One of our past volunteers, Alex Shockley, a world class mountain climber, found a perfect setting for a high altitude placement that will appeal to all who are moved by the beauty and majesty of the Himalayas.

Dolpa is divided into two districts, upper and lower. A trekking permit is required to enter either. Both are spared many western trekkers due to the inconvenience of reaching the area.

The school system runs from March through November. In March of 2009 the school that we are now sending volunteers to opened with 26 students and 4 teachers. The teachers speak English and all the classes are held in English. The founder of the school is very interested to have native English teachers at the school and has been extremely accommodating in helping our volunteers reach this Shangri-La and making them very comfortable while there.

The trip from Kathmandu involves two different plane flights followed by a two hour trek. Due to this the cost for this placement is an additional $480.00 if the volunteer wants to fly. To take a bus for 12 hours and then fly, followed by the two-hour trek, the increases cost would be $260.00. We also reserve this placement for those with a minimum of one month to spend, but encourage those with more time. The extra cost in this placement will seem very inexpensive once the volunteer has experienced the breathtaking vistas and warmth of the teachers and students alike. This is truly a remarkable placement, providing an unforgettable time where the friendships made will last a lifetime. There is a computer with Skype access in the volunteer quarters so that volunteers may stay in touch with family.

More photos will be posted after June 1st, when two more of our volunteers finish their time and return to Dhapasi. Until then I leave you with the following.

April 2009

Nepal Orphans Home (NOH) created Volunteer Nepal a number of years ago in an effort to attract compassionate volunteers with an interest in sharing their skills in the many Nepalese communities that are somewhat out of the way and forgotten, as well as helping in our own four homes.

Almost two years ago NOH was introduced to two communities in the hill section of Nepal in a district called Ramechhap. One of the communities — Dumrikharka — is a three-hour straight uphill hike from the district seat of Manthali. The community there is made up of 90% Dalit caste; Dalits in the Hindu order are “untouchables.” Laws were placed on the books several years ago banning prejudice in all practices but unfortunately people's learned behavior is harder to mandate, and this age-old system is far too entrenched to give way. This wonderful community has been forgotten by the government, and as the people are Dalit they must rely upon themselves to get by. Outside jobs for Dalits are limited to the type of work where one would not come in contact with higher caste; Dalits are not even allowed to carry goods sold in stores to higher caste, as anything touched by a Dalit may not be touched by upper caste. We found in Dumrikharka a community of extraordinarily warm and deserving people laboring under the harshest of imposed conditions.

Dumrikharka Village Renewable Energy Program

Peter Hess, the president of NOH, began collaboration with FOST, a Kathmandu-based NGO (Foundation for Sustainable Technologies) through e-mail with its founder, and decided that Dumrikharka would benefit by implementing the cooking fuel technology in concert with retrofitted cooking hearths in the people's homes.

During his last visit Peter met with FOST and purchased some of the equipment necessary for this while learning firsthand about the many technologies FOST has developed. Shortly thereafter we had a volunteer application from Ethan Smith, a young man from Oregon with degrees in industrial design and sustainable planning and design, who asked if we could place him and his partner Ashley Sullivan, who has similar degrees, for a period of four to six months. Some might call this serendipity.

We arranged for Ethan and Ashley to attend many workshops with FOST and they ended up developing a close personal relationship with the founder. Soon they were ready to go to Dumrikharka along with a staff member of Volunteer Nepal and introduce simple technologies that have been life changing.

We set up a dozen of the village women as a co-op, and Ethan and Ashley taught them to make cooking briquettes out of waste materials easily collected and mixed with other organic debris. The mix is pressed and the resulting briquette is dried for later use. NOH bought two presses and two cookers for the co-op and supplied the initial money for all the necessary implements to begin. The idea is that these 12 women will collectively make briquettes and use them in their own homes. Surplus briquettes will be sold in Manthali or to other villages and the income from that will go to supporting the school. Eventually a very robust cottage industry will be in full swing and NOH will be able to wean its support away from the school, and the village will become a prosperous, self-reliant, and proud one.

Sustainable energy for cooking ushers in health, as the briquettes are comparatively smoke free, and by retrofitting them to their cooking hearths all the smoke is now directed outside. It is also eco friendly as the limited amount of trees are spared now.

Here below are photos taken by Ethan Smith during their work with the elected village co-op.

Dumrikharka Family Life

Much like early pioneers in American life these folks are working with the land in order to make something for themselves, but with the additional hardship of being ostracized and having to battle the prejudices of one of humanity's oldest religions. Again, NOH is very proud to be able to work side by side with this wonderful community. The following photos were very touchingly taken by Ethan Smith.

School Life in Dumrikharka

The school receives no government funds and was without any up to date books, benches, teaching aids, and had a teaching staff of four local young men and woman receiving very little for their efforts. The Board of Directors at NOH decided to become involved with the school. We paid a group of local women to make uniforms for the 100 or so children then attending the school; we bought books, teaching aids, benches, copies, pencils, erasures, etc.; we subsidized the teachers in order to help them to afford to become better devoted; and maybe most importantly we started a hot lunch program enlisting more of the local women to conduct the program.

The children in the school were undernourished and a little malnourished, and this program substantially improved their nutrition and ability to concentrate in school. The children have had a much healthier year, and school attendance is very high now; we have almost all of the 140 school-age children attending regularly.

With the few simple measures initiated by NOH, made possible from our donors and funds from volunteers, we have been able to help this village help themselves. It has not taken long, and the effect is easily measured in the invigorated spirit and the sense of accomplishment in the entire village, from the very young to the village elders. This remains a popular placement for volunteers, the effect of which further raises the village pride in hosting these volunteers and learning English from them.

The following photos were once again exclusively taken by Ethan Smith and Ashley Sullivan.

In closing we want to thank Ethan Smith and Ashley Sullivan for their very heartfelt work with Volunteer Nepal, and the extraordinary execution of it in Dumrikharka. These guys have made a profound difference not in the lives of one or two but in a whole village. In a few days they will be returning to Oregon, Ashley to pursue medicine and Ethan returning to his freelancing in sustainable planning and design.

For more information about their volunteering experience or to speak with Ethan about work opportunities, please contact Ethan at ethan.design@gmail.com and Ashley at ashes.n.s@gmail.com.